Nope. I'm right there with you. Worse thing is this: My wife is due around mid october so if i can't take my CPAT here in LA, it's gonna be cutting it close

no wonder you are looking outside CA. 1600 EMT's applying for 15 openings

at least they pay a lot better than San Diego

Aug. 09--More than 1,600 applications were turned in this week from job seekers hoping to be selected to fill 15 new Glendale firefighter positions.

The city began accepting online submissions on Monday and has accumulated a mass of applicants from California as well as other states, according to Aymee Martin, human resources administrator. Job hopefuls still have until Aug. 16 to apply.

"They are just looking for that one opportunity," she said.

The open firefighter positions have drawn more applicants in the first week of recruitment than the Glendale Police Department received during its latest effort to hire new officers.

The police department collected 815 applications during its July recruitment campaign, which was aimed at filling general and bilingual officer positions.

The Los Angeles City Fire Department received more than 13,000 applications last year to fill 350 firefighter positions over the next two years.

Nine firefighters were recently hired by the Burbank Fire Department, but 3,500 job seekers applied in October 2010 to take a written exam, according to Fire Chief Tom Lenahan.

Glendale fire officials have taken their recruitment efforts to social media, using Twitter and YouTube to get the word about the new positions.

The fire department is looking for recruits who are willing to provide community service and have exemplary ethics.

After applying, job seekers must take a written exam, which will likely be given in September.

The application process includes a background investigation, credit check and polygraph test, as well as written, oral and performance exams.

Updated: Saturday, August 3 2013, 04:07 PM CDT A major milestone for the Austin Fire Department: 36 of their 47 new graduates are dedicated to new positions. For the first time, the City of Austin will reach national standards when it comes to staffing. Battalion Chief Thayer Smith says, "It'll make the citizens safer, the firefighters safer with all units now having four persons, so we're very excited to get to that." While many here celebrate that milestone, there's also an issue looming over these firefighters. Contract negotiations between the Austin Firefighters Association and the City of Austin have come to standstill. Austin City Councilman Mike Martinez says, "Both sides have put their last offers on the table, both sides have agreed that neither one of them wants to make any concessions. So it's kind of a cooling off period." Martinez who says the main sticking point is a discrepancy over authority over the hiring process. The city wants power to implement a hiring process that will achieve diversity. "Diversity is an important goal, not just to the city but the union as well, it's just about the details and how we achieve the diversity," says Martinez No one from the firefighters union would comment about the issue on camera. Off camera they did tell us the Austin Firefighters Association wants to make sure standards are not compromised in order to achieve that diversity. So what's next? The current contract expires September 30. In a statement from the city of Austin labor relations officer, Deven Desai says: "After four months of good-faith bargaining and dialogue, we unfortunately were not been able to reach an agreement. Negotiations have concluded, and we will continue abiding by the current contract which carries us through September 30. Beginning October 1, we will operate under State Civil Service law. Whether under the current contract or Civil Service, the great service the Austin Fire Department provides to our Austin residents will not be impacted."

"McDonald made an ultimatum 'you sign this hiring article that gives me the ability to do whatever I want or you don't get a contract.' It's just that simple," said Nicks.
KVUE News reached out to the city for comment from McDonald. We were told he was not in the office and that Desai would speak on the city's behalf.
As of now, the contract between the AFA and the city requires firefighters are hired based on scores. Twenty percent of that score comes from a written or cognitive exam. The other 80 percent is based on an oral exam.
The contract expires on September 30th. When it does, the city will likely have to go back to the requirements established in the civil services hiring process which bases a candidate's score 100 percent on a written test.

So if sept. 30 comes around and there is no agreement does that mean our current written test scores will be what we get hired on or does that mean we have to go back and take a civil service exam. Is there a possibility the city just wont hire anyone this year until an agreement is reached?

So if sept. 30 comes around and there is no agreement does that mean our current written test scores will be what we get hired on or does that mean we have to go back and take a civil service exam. Is there a possibility the city just wont hire anyone this year until an agreement is reached?

The test we took is very different from a civil service exam. Likely we'd have to retake a new one, though there's no telling when.

Today is the last day for Austin firefighters to vote on whether to approve an agreement between the city and the firefighters union on how the Austin Fire Department can hire cadets.

If the members of the Austin Firefighters Association vote against the agreement, it could delay an ongoing hiring process even further — or lead to a cadet class being dissolved through a court order.

Firefighters have been voting since Tuesday on an agreement worked out between union members and Chief Rhoda Mae Kerr. At issue is a yearlong dispute between the city and the union over the firefighter hiring process, and the city's attempts to attract more diverse candidates to the department.

In August, an arbitrator ruled that the city violated its labor contract with the union in how it scored an entrance exam. City officials said a pass/fail ranking would be the better approach to increase diversity, but the union favored a numerical score, saying a pass/fail grade would lower the quality of the exam.

The arbitrator's ruling caused the list of current firefighter candidates to be re-ranked, confusing many applicants and leading some to believe they were moving forward with the process when they were not.

Bob Nicks, the president of the Austin Firefighters Association, said union officials met with Kerr and her staff to create an agreement on how the arbitrator's decision should affect future hiring processes. That agreement better defined the role of the cognitive portion of the entrance exam, he said.

Nicks said he has recommended that members vote for the agreement. But if it is voted down, the union could seek a court order to stop the current hiring process.

"It would create irreparable harm to the individuals in that class, and the class could be dissolved through a court order," Nicks said, adding that he hopes that won't be necessary.

Division Chief Brian Tanzola, who is overseeing the hiring process, said department officials would like the current hiring phase to continue.

"We're hopeful the vote passes, and we'd like to put this behind us and move forward with the hiring process," he said.

Fire department officials are looking to hire about 80 firefighters from two lists of applicants. About 5,000 people have applied, Tanzola said.

The department is processing the top 150 candidates from each list. A cadet academy class for people with previous firefighting experience is scheduled to start in late October, and one for novices is set to begin next spring.

AFD is continuing to review the exam results. The results and list of candidates invited to continue in the hiring process will be posted on this website as soon as the information is finalized. We appreciate your patience as we complete this part of the process.